The Police at Abodom in the Ashanti Region yesterday arrested the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s Deputy Constituency Youth Organizer for Bekwai, Francis Siaw, over alleged assault he perpetrated during a party meeting on Tuesday.
Siaw was picked up after his alleged victim, Okatakyie Kwame Opoku Agyemang, lodged an assault complaint at the Abodom Police Station.
The Police have since said they are investigating the matter.
According to reports, the assault resulted after an electoral area meeting held at Bekwai Dadease and Adwumam electoral areas in the Bekwai municipality degenerated into a brawl.
Francis Siaw is alleged to have given Opoku Agyemang several slaps on the face out of anger.
On Wednesday, the alleged recipient of the slaps told Kumasi-based Akoma FM that the slaps were not provoked at all.
“During an electoral area meeting that was supposed to precede the constituency delegates’ conference, the Deputy [Youth] Organizer Francis Siaw from nowhere landed two slaps on my face. I didn’t retaliate because [I] know the law so I didn’t want to implicate myself. I reported to the police and immediately he was picked up,” he said..
However, explaining his action, the slap giver said the victim had attracted what he got because he had gate-crushed the meeting and also insulted him.
“Katakyie Kwame Opoku Agyemang had been disqualified and expunged from his post as electoral area coordinator because he campaigned for an individual candidate during the 2020 elections and as our party constitution demands, we did exactly that only for him to surface at Tuesday’s meeting in a capacity as Electoral Area Coordinator. So he insulted me and [I] lost my cool and slapped him”.
But Opoku Agyemang, who is accused of betraying the party for an independent candidate in 2020, denied the allegations claiming he has not been served an official letter of dismissal or demotion.
But the NPP Ashanti Regional First Vice Chairman Kwabena Nsenkyire, has backed the Constituency Deputy Organizer, and said that Opoku Agyemang was lucky he himself was not at the meeting; “your ordeal would have been very brutal if I was there because per our party laws, you are not a member, so why do you have to invade our meetings?”
Kwabena Nsenkyire further urged the Bekwai Constituency executives to deal with such “traitors” anytime they show up at party meetings.
The Abodom Police have since bailed the Constituency Deputy Organizer after his statement was taken as investigation continues